Between God and Man

Sermon 6 . Convening the Fourth General Council of the Lateran

  CONVENING THE FOURTH GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE LATERAN The Fourth Lateran Council was convened by Pope Innocent III on November , .To initiate this great pastoral reform council, he had appropriately chosen a holy day of obligation, the feast of Martin of Tours, a saint highly admired as the “priest of priests,” the first bishop-confessor canonized by the western church. For centuries St. Martin had been given the same veneration as the apostles. References to this council often note that it was convened on his feast day. The council opened in the Basilica of St. John (the Baptist) Lateran, the Pope’s own church, the administrative center of the papacy, and the mother church of the Christian world. Originally named the Church of the Savior, it was established by Constantine in the year .There the Pope himself ordained priests, and it was the setting for the opening ceremonies of Lent and the rites of MaundyThursday , the commemoration day of the Last Supper.The anniversary of the church’s dedication, still observed today as a feast day on the liturgical calendar, had been celebrated only two days before the council opened.1 This was to be the apogee of Innocent’s brilliant career. At the age of fifty-five Innocent was in his prime, the most influential man in the western world. For eighteen years he had waged moral battles with earthly rulers and had, in many cases, been the victor. His phenomenal energy had carried him into major arenas of public life: po-  litical, economic, educational, as well as religious. Now his great plan for the reform of the church was to be put into action. As powerful as he undoubtedly was, however, Innocent knew that to assure the success of his reform he must have the support of his bishops, who were assembled before him now at the pre-dawn Mass in the Lateran Basilica. Innocent himself intoned the hymn “Veni creator spiritus,” which was taken up by the assembled prelates, even as great crowds were gathering outside. This, the twelfth general council in the church’s history, was the largest ever held up to that time. “There were present four hundred and four bishops from throughout the western church, and from the Latin eastern church a large number of abbots, canons and representatives of the secular power. No Greeks were present, even those invited , except the patriarch of the Maronites and a legate of the patriarch of Alexandria.”There were more than eight hundred abbots and priors, and representatives from cathedrals and collegiate chapters throughout theWest. Most Christian rulers were represented, and even theWestern Emperor of Constantinople had sent his ambassador .The crowds were so immense that rumors spread of numerous deaths from suffocation, including that of Matthew, Bishop of Amalfi.2 The canons of Lateran Council IV were not a surprise to the assembled bishops, for the council had been two and a half years in the planning. In the spring of , Innocent had sent letters calling for the council, and the thirty months of preparation had been time enough for the bishops to become familiar with the reforms Innocent sought.3 To prepare for the forthcoming council during the intervening period the Pope dispatched legates throughout Christendom to investigate abuses to be corrected by conciliar legislation. In a similar manner the bishops were charged to inquire into their dioceses and to submit reports on needed reforms. Robert of Courson’s legatine commission stemmed directly from the papal program and his councils held in France prepared for the Lateran Council. As a bishop, Stephen Langton issued synodical statutes for the diocese of Canterbury between July  and July  which anticipated the legislation    of the general council.When the Lateran Council solemnly opened .l.l. the careful preparations were in large measure realized.4 Therefore, Innocent’s rhetorical task in this opening sermon of the council was not to inform the bishops of his plans, but to inspire these men with the same sense of mission he himself felt, and to encourage them to implement those plans.The bishops must now take up their responsibilities in assuming “the burden, not only the honor ” of leadership. The text for the council sermon is taken from the words of Christ to his apostles at the Last Supper, the Passover meal that was to be the scene of his farewell to them before his passion and death: “I have...